This is a collection of news about border issues, particularly those seen from Arizona and regarding the right to keep and bear arms. Sources often include Mexican media. It's often interesting to see how different the view is from the south.
If you have comments or questions drop a line to (the name of this blog)(a)knoxcomm.com

Sunday, January 22, 2012

AZMEX I3 21-1-12

NOGALES, Ariz. (AP) — A school in southern Arizona was put on lockdown after a group of apparent illegal immigrants was spotted walking near the campus.Students at Continental School in Green Valley were ushered into their classrooms and kept inside while Pima County sheriff's deputies and the Border Patrol was called.

Sheriff's spokeswoman deputy Dawn Barkman tells the Nogales International (http://bit.ly/ADMZGj) that the group of men and women had not stepped inside the school fence and seemed wary once they realized they were being watched.Superintendent Virginia Juettner of the one-school district says students were kept inside for only about 15 minutes after a PE teacher spotted the migrants at about noon on Wednesday. They were last seen headed for a neighborhood.Juettner says she didn't hesitate to use the school's lockdown procedure.___Information from: Nogales International, http:// www.nogalesinternational.com/

Note: So many accomplishments in such a short time, but if he had been helping ATF run guns to DTO's, would he have gotten less time?

TUCSON, Ariz. -- A convicted felon arrested in southern Arizona for trying to re-enter the country illegally has been sentenced to more than three years in prison.

Federal prosecutors announced Friday that 20-year-old Israel Toyayo- Morales received a 37-month term. Morales is from Iguala, Guerrero, Mexico. He was apprehended by U.S. Border Patrol agents in Tucson last May.

During processing at the Tucson Station, a fingerprint database showed Toyayo-Morales was convicted in 2010 in Illinois for attempted first-degree murder and aggravated battery causing great bodily harm. He was sentenced to two years in prison on each count. Record checks also revealed he was removed from the U.S. through Hidalgo, Texas.

Prosecutors say Toyayo-Morales will be deported following his incarceration and now is banned for life from all legalization processes.

Note: despite the usual misleading language, it is about illegal immigrants

Several immigrant advocacy groups on Friday called on the Obama administration to stop detaining immigrants facing deportation at a jail in Florence run by the Pinal County Sheriff's Office.

The advocacy groups called conditions at the jail "dangerous and inhumane." But Pinal County Sheriff's Office officials challenged those allegations, saying the jail's operations received a perfect score from the National Sheriffs' Association during a review last year. Federal immigration officials also said they closely monitor immigration-detention operations at the jail and conduct regular inspections to make sure the jail meets certain standards.

On Friday, the ACLU of Arizona sent a letter to Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director John Morton demanding the agency terminate a contract with PCSO to detain immigrants while their deportation cases are pending in immigration court. The letter was signed by more than a dozen immigrant advocacy groups.

ICE has had a contract with the Pinal County Sheriff's Office since 2006 to detain immigrants. The contract calls for holding up to 534 immigrants, but on average the jail has been holding about 410 immigrants a day, ICE officials said.

Victoria Lopez, the program director for the ACLU of Arizona, said that immigrants detained at the Pinal County jail have been subjected to abusive treatment by jail officers and inadequate and untimely medical care."We have spoken to and received correspondence from people who have been detained in dangerous and inhumane conditions," Lopez said, standing in front of a building on Central Avenue that houses the Phoenix detention and removal operations of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. "These violations of civil and human rights must now come to an end."

Lopez was joined by about 15 representatives from several immigrant advocacy groups.

As ICE has stepped up deportations, increasing numbers of immigrants have been held in detention facilities across the country, including in many jails that contract with ICE to hold immigrant detainees.

Lopez said ICE vowed to stop detaining immigrants in "jail-like" conditions as part of reforms launched more than two years ago. But that hasn't happened, she said. The reforms came after the deaths of more than 100 immigrants held in detention centers nationwide between 2003 and 2009.

A 2011 report by the ACLU of Arizona found inconsistent conditions at the five immigration-detention facilities in Florence and Eloy. The report called the conditions at the Pinal County jail the "most extreme and abusive."

The report said that of the five immigration-detention facilities in Florence and Eloy, advocates received the most number of complaints from immigrants who had been detained at the Pinal County jail.

Amber Cargile, a spokeswoman for ICE in Phoenix, did not respond directly to claims of abuse at the Pinal County jail.

In a written statement, however, she said that ICE officers visit the Pinal County jail daily to assess living conditions and make sure the jail is complying with ICE's detention standards."Any allegations of abuse or misconduct by those charged with providing for the health and welfare of ICE detainees are promptly reported to the appropriate entities for immediate review, investigation and action," she said.

Since ICE announced plans in August 2009 to reform the detention system, the agency has also beefed up oversight of detention facilities nationwide, she said."Those measures include announced and unannounced inspections, regular facility visits by ICE staff, and the hiring of detention- services managers to ensure appropriate conditions at detention facilities," she said.

Elias Johnson, a spokesman for the Pinal County Sheriff's Office, said last year the jail received a perfect 100 score from the National Sheriffs' Association based on "conditions, cleanliness, procedure and overall condition of the jail."

He said the Pinal County jail was the only facility in the state to receive a perfect score."While the ACLU claims conditions are deplorable ... we will just point to our national accreditation that we continue to lead the way with how we treat our inmates," Johnson said.